E 26 broached to leeward

[Joe A.]

On our last sail in the fall we were well heeled on a close reach, stable with periodic 15K gusts. One gust made the boat turn to leeward and we are still trying to figure out what happened. Causes?; too much sail (full main/140% jib), poor rudder grip, mast not set right, lousy helmsman (my guess because it wasn't me)


The boat goes in the water in a few weeks. Before we set off to the marina I want to make sure there isn't anything we can do to prevent this from happening again. Suggestions and ideas welcomed.


Joe A. 'Half Fast' E-26

 

[mherrcat]

If the gust was strong enough to push you over far enough for the rudder to come out of the water I guess it could swing you around like that. If your rudder is out of the water, it doesn't seem like it would matter how good a helmsman you are, you wouldn't have any steering anyway.

 

[steven]

a wave could do it

 

[bayhoss]

I'm going with excessive heeling causing the rudder to come out of the water and then in turn the wind taking the boat to leeward. It is my understanding that broaching is caused by rounding up and not bearing away - I can always be mistaken.

Best,
Frank

 

[Morgan Stinemetz]

Broach to leeward

It sounds as if you had too much sail up for the conditions. On my E-27, a working jib was fine for 15 knots. I usually had a reef in by then anyway. The boats was far more controllable and sailed faster.

 

[Seth]

Hold the phone!

Did you really broach to leeward?

This means that the boat turned AWAY from the wind, to a beam reach, then a broad reach, then a run, and finally gybing and laying over on the OTHER tack. For this to happen I would think the boat is horribly out of balance, and frankly unless your rudder is seriouly mishapen, I don't see how a boat which is heeled over in 15 knots of breeze could do this. Even if you dropped the mainsail and sheeted in the genoa hard (while leaving the tiller centered), I don't think the boat could be made to do this in 15 kts of wind regardless of any of the usual variables. If the boat sails normally most of the time (see some earlier posts about rig tune and balance), this really cannot happen (unless maybe the helmsperson got confused and turned the wrong way while trying to maintain the course???)

I think you meant to say you broached to WINDWARD....The boat was heeling over and despite attempts to maintain course with the helm, the boat headed up towards the wind (while heeling to leeward more), and as some have suggested, maybe the rudder popped out the water at just the wrong time. If things happened really fast, the boat could have headed up, and tacked, and be "pinned" on the other tack until you released the genoa sheet

If this is what actually happened, then the main cause is likely a bit too much sail area for the conditions, which can be mitigated by flattening the sails (mainsail: outhaul and halyard tight, backstay (if any), on hard, traveller and sheet eased a bit so the leech is open at the top; genoa: halyard tight, leads aft).

Other things you can do are have the crew sit out on the high side, move them aft (and get anything really heavy out of the forepeak). The 2 things (besides mast rake) which will increase the tendency to broach to windward (caused by excessive weather helm) are weight forward and heeling. If you reduce these the boat will have a more neutral helm. The reverse is also true:too much weight aft and no heeling (or heeling to windward in the extreme) will induce some lee helm. BUT that is really an extreme example.

Let's sort out the terminology to describe what happened and then we can dissect it and come up a solution!

Cheers

 

[Dan Morehouse]

What Seth said. When hard on the wind with a lot of sail up in a lot of wind, my e-38 WILL NOT round downwind...no matter how hard the helm is put over. But it WILL cheerfully round UP...if hit by a bigger gust and not corrected with a lot of Armstrong steering. It's ease the main...or no turn downwind.